10 of best

Audio books available on BBC Sounds

The BBC has released a raft of new audio books available on its Sounds stream for free now.

Topping the list is Booker Prize winner Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo. It shared first place with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, her sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale.

Girl, Woman, Other is a wonderfully hopeful story that portrays a group of interconnected characters, mostly women, black and British.

Also available are classic novels including Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady and Ivan Turgenev’s First Love.

Historical fiction is represented by Tracy Chevalier’s Girl With a Pearl Earring. Classic adventure The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan is also available to listen to, as is Sherlock Holmes mystery A Study in Scarlet.

1 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

In the first episode step into Amma’s world as a playwright, now in her fifties, whose new play ‘The Last Amazon of Dahomey’ is being premiered at The National Theatre in London.

2 First Love by Ivan Turgenev

It tells the love story between a 21-yearold girl and a 16-year-old boy. It is based on Turgenev’s infatuation with a young neighbor in the country, an infatuation that lasted until his discovery that Catherine was his father’s mistress.

3 Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

The story of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer, who inherits a large amount of money. She subsequently becomes the victim of Machiavellian scheming by two American expatriates.

4 The Seventh Test by Vikras Swarup

A mystery thriller by the author of Slumdog Millionaire. The book is about a sales assistant in India who is offered a chance to change her life. But it comes with consequences she had not banked on.

5 Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Set in 17th-century Delft, Holland, the novel was inspired by local painter Johannes Vermeer’s work. Chevalier presents a fictional account of Vermeer, the model and the painting.

6 The 39 Steps by John Buchan

Classic adventure story featuring Richard Hannay, a South African mine engineer, and his attempts to thwart a plot to start a world war. Includes chase scene across the Scottish Highlands.

7 A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The first of four Sherlock Holmes novels, it introduces the reader to the amateur detective and his side-kick Dr Watson. The adventure ranges from foggy streets of London to the burning plains of Utah.

8 Queenie by Candice CartyWilliams

Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Americanah in this disarmingly honest, boldly political and truly inclusive novel that will speak to anyone who has gone looking for love and found something very different.

9 The Fall of the House of Byron by Emily Brand

Three centuries of family history of the most scandalous aristocratic lineages in Britain. The biography shows how Lord Byron’s ancestors set the example for truly nonconformist existence.

10 Amongst Women by John McGahern

Considered his masterpiece. It tells the story of Michael Moran, a bitter ageing IRA veteran, and his tyranny over his wife and children, who both love and fear him. Shortlisted for the 1990 Booker Prize.